Arnold Böcklin was born in Basel in 1827, three years after Lord Byron died. It is said of him that he took his obsession with death further than anyone else. His is a self-portrait in which the same artist, robust, blond hair thrown back, holds a brush while the Grim Reaper stealthily approaches and puts a claw on his shoulder, the same one with which he wields a violin bow. .
I search his biography and discover that he is buried in Fiesole, where he died after living long periods in Florence. And suddenly I think I know what the boulder I've seen from the ferry that brought me here reminds me of. Böcklin, of course, Böcklin and his marine graveyard! It's not as famous a painting as The Birth of Venus, which Botticelli painted here, but when you see it once, you can't forget it. It's called The Island of the Dead, Die Toteninsel.
Apparently, there are five different versions, one of them exhibited in the New York Metropolitan. The others are in Basel, Leipzig and Berlin. One that was in Rotterdam was destroyed by the bombing of the Second World War. The writer María Belmonte maintains (in an article published in Cultura/s ) that the work could have arisen from a commission from a very rich woman from the island of Ponza who asked Böcklin for “the most romantic painting ever painted”. She recalls that the author himself always wanted the painting to be surrounded by mystery. For this reason, he never clarified in which cemetery or in which island he had been inspired. Sergei Rachmaninov composed a haunting musical poem based on the canvas.
In the painting we are shown, in the foreground, a boat with an upright figure covered by what could be a shroud. He is about to enter a tiny graveyard. Charon is at the helm. The cemetery is located on an islet delimited by a large semicircular wall, with an outline of open doors or windows on the upper floors of the cliff. And, inside, a score of cypresses that surpass the rocks and scratch a stormy sky.
There has been much speculation about the place that inspired the author such a tribute to death. The San Michele cemetery in Venice, the English cemetery in Florence, Corfu, Lake Garda, the castle on the island of Ischia or Ponza are some of the hypotheses considered. Belmonte clearly leans towards the Florentine cemetery: the artist had his studio right in front of it and, moreover, his daughter was buried there. As if that were not enough, we know that in the past there were two rocks similar to those in the painting, which were dynamited to build more tombs.
But I would like to believe that, were it not for the craggy coast of Palmaria, at this moment I would have in view the very island that captivated the artist. I only have to walk north for a few minutes to see it, even from a distance. Enough to get around an inopportune ledge.
I would be lying if I said that when I saw the Torre Scola from the sea I related it to the famous painting. But I can say now that the same impression that Böcklin's work caused me when I saw it for the first time, I have relived it at the sight of that piece of hell that floats in the waters of paradise.
Everything that can be seen in the painting is contained there, except for the cypresses, replaced by wild vegetation, and the corpse that sails towards its final destination, which is us, without knowing it, when, ignorantly, we observe the tower from a summer ferry .
Too bad the boat doesn't pass a little closer. You have to enlarge the photos I have taken before to see the amazing resemblance between the semi-open structure of the royal tower and the marine cemetery that the artist painted. I read in an old guide that Torre Scola was part of the defensive system of the Republic of Genoa. It was built at the beginning of the 17th century and was active until the Napoleonic wars. He did not survive the fight. For decades it was abandoned to its fate, until it was subjected to various reforms throughout the 20th century.
While living in Florence between 1876 and 1885, the Swiss painter spent some summers on this coast, between Viareggio and San Terenzo. If Torre Scola served as inspiration for The Island of the Dead, he must have seen it on those vacations at the beginning of his Florentine period, because it is known that in 1879 he already made a sketch of the painting. He could also be inspired by the work of a landscape artist of his time who knew the island.
When in 1892 he settled in San Terenzo for a few months, all the versions of the painting had already been painted. There he lived in the house of the fisherman (and pirate) Giacomino Rossi, located a few streets above Villa Magni, the home of the Shelleys.
It would be reckless to conclude that Torre Scola is surely The Island of the Dead, as there are solid arguments in favor of the English Cemetery hypothesis. But it is undeniable that there is an amazing resemblance (this one from Porto Venere is indeed an island surrounded by water), a coincidence of dates and a geographical proximity that leaves this possibility more than open. Besides, who can deny the artist the freedom to take elements from here and there when creating an imagined landscape?
Michael Molina. 'Seven days on the Riviera'. Cathedral. 237 pages.
